Here are some photos of Taylor Swift and Ashley Greene’s ex-boyfriend Reeve Carney filming Swifty’s new music video for “I Knew You Were Trouble”. Reeve is cute… not my type, but I could see Swifty going for him. More on that in a moment! I’m pretty sure this song is about John Mayer, not Jake Gyllenhaal. I think her album is largely about Jake and John, but you have to be careful in your analysis song-by-song. Some lyrics fit both dudes, so you might have to look for context clues in the videos. Speaking of, Swifty had a recent interview in the New York Times, and it’s really, really good. Like, sometimes Taylor will come across as strikingly “together” and mature – which makes me think her girly-ponies-and-sparkles thing really is just a money-making façade. Anyway, here’s the NYT piece – Swifty references hipsters, hipster music and hipster music video tropes and it’s kind of awesome.

At the CMA awards earlier this month, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley cracked a joke about your reported breakup with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s son Conor Kennedy. But the camera never panned to you.
They don’t pan to you if you’re not laughing.

Do boyfriends ever say, “Look, whatever happens, just don’t write about me”?
The only time that has ever crossed someone’s mind was when we were in the process of breaking up.

And what did you tell him?
Of course I was like, “Oh, don’t worry, I won’t.” And then I did. Look, it’s not like it was written somewhere in the fine print that I write songs about my life. If we break up, I’m going to write about it. But I’m probably also going to write about when I fell in love with you. So there’s an upside.

In your video for “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” you are wearing big, heavy glasses and there are a bunch of guys in animal costumes. What is that about?
You know when you watch an indie video and you’re like: “Why are they underwater in upside- down chairs with a random projection of a butterfly interspersed? Why is this happening?” We were trying to think of ways that we could tip our hat to the randomness of some indie music videos. Why are there woodland creatures? Nobody knows. Why am I wearing floral-print pajamas? Nobody knows. Why am I randomly wearing glasses? Nobody knows.

In that song, you also make fun of the ex-boyfriend who finds peace of mind “with some indie record that’s much cooler than mine.” Do you think there’s a special circle of hell reserved for hipsters?
That all came out of this one relationship I was in. This guy was just, so, so cool. It kind of gave me a bit of a complex for this album, because he was always going on and on about this new band that was so cool because they were so underground. I have so many indie bands on my iPod. What I don’t really understand is the attitude that if a band is unknown, they’re good, and if they get fans, then you move on to the next band.

Was that guy a musician?
No, he wasn’t. He just had very eclectic, sophisticated taste.

A lot of your fans say the clues in your lyrics and liner notes point to your rumored ex, the actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
I don’t talk about who it is specifically because these are real people. You try to give insight as to where you were coming from as a writer without completely throwing somebody under the bus.

So, give me a shout out to your favorite hidden indie band.
I haven’t been listening to that much music lately, I’ve just kind of been doing promo and sleeping.

Are you afraid that people are going to think the band you name isn’t cool enough?
If I say something, it becomes a thing — like that’s the band she was talking about in the song.

But that’s not what I asked.
But that’s what people are going to say. You see how it works, being in my mind?

You’ve talked about Dolly Parton as being a female musician you admire. Do you think you want to stay in the business as long as she has?
I don’t know if I could do this with the same energy, and in the same way — all the costume changes and glitter and hair and makeup all the time. When I’m in my 50s, I kind of think I’ll want to be in a garden.

I LOVE her “nobody knows” riff on hipster music videos. That is f—king genius. As for Swifty and her boys and her boy problems. Well, single Swifty never stays single for long, but I’m pleasantly surprised by the buffet of boy-choices she has before her. There’s Reeve Carney (let’s see if we can get that going), there’s a return to Conor Kennedy (which I think will totally happen over Christmas break), there’s Ed Sheeran (she’ll be on tour with him next year), and of course, there’s 18-year-old Harry Styles from One Direction. This week’s Us Weekly says that Swifty and Styles are definitely on. Backstage at the X-Factor, “They lit up when they saw each other and he gave her a giant hug… She was a puppy dog. She didn’t let him out of her sight!” A source close to Harry says he “acts like he has a crush. They email a lot!” And this sums up Swifty on a fundamental level: “She doesn’t want to be single.” Yep.

I think she’s not writing about these men/boys as the celebrity but who they are/were to her…her exes. That fact they are famous is one reason she doesn’t name them. There’s just enough stuff about her life published so we can pick out the clues. She did with non famous boys from the time she startes writing before she became famous.

I tought the same thing – people were wondering if that song “We Are Never Ever…” was about Mayer or Gyllenhaal so she ruled out Mayer by saying it’s not about a musician. If she didn’t say that I would bet on Mayer because back in the summer I watched an interview with Gyllenhaal at some music festival and he said his favourite musicians are Adele and Mumford&Sons and they are among the most popular, best selling musicians out there. Guy from the description would call them sell-outs in one voice with the rest of the hipster crowd. I know that Mumfords are sometimes described as hipster band but the real hipsters hate them because they actually made some money from their music instead of remaining true to their art which means playing concerts for a 30 people “crowds” in some garage in the middle of nowhere.

But… did she? She said he wasn’t a musician; she might have meant that he thinks he is, but he’s not.

I think this interview is brilliant and very insightful. I realize no one on this site likes her, but I think she’s pretty together (not always, but sometimes).

ETA: The reason I love that she says all this is because one of the recent appearances of ColdPlay had all sorts of WTF moments for me. I don’t remember what show it was, but they had all kinds of weird writing on their shirts that only showed in blacklight, and there were numbers and letters swirling around. It was very bizarre and nonsensical and all the media outlets were all agog about how great it was. It’s collective stupidity, mostly, I think.

I’m in two minds about this interview.
She certainly seems sharper than she has previously, so, points for that.
But I’m not a fan of indie-band bashing, or any kind of music bashing.
Can I just mention that I’m *not* a hipster, first? I’ve got everything from Debussy to Metallica on my iPod and I don’t throw a hissy when I hear obscure stuff on the radio (hilarious to watch that when it does happen though. You meet a lot of strange people on the Tube…)
I just don’t like it when people music shame or band shame others. There’s this guy at work who goes out of his way to make people feel bad about the type of music they listen to when in reality, all that’s on his iPod is dubstep.
I think music can be a very personal, very sensitive topic for many of us even if we don’t know it because it’s such an accessible medium – music appeals to nearly all of us. It can make us laugh, cry or jump around like a lunatic, and if you insult someone’s favourite musician then at times it can seem as though it’s a personal insult to you as well. Music can become an extension of ourselves at times.
‘Scuse the rambling. I’ve been resisting the urge to plaster that guy’s office with Rihanna pictures all week.

Yes, this is a great post. I feel exactly the same way about music bashing, but at the same time I understand and have my own concerns with the real hipsters but by hipsters I don’t mean indie music lovers, but fake people who pretend to like unknown bands and abandon them when they have more than 3 thousand listeners on last.fm. I don’t think bashing them equals bashing their music taste because it’s impossible to know their real taste. They might secretly love Taylor Swift or Adele but the pretend they hate mainstream and listen only to those special, unknown bands until those bands become more popular. How can someone stop liking music overnight just because it, let’s say appeared in Grey’s Anatomy? They put people who really love indie music in the very bad light and trigger indie bashing. I’ve been called hipster several times only because I love musicians like
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Calexico, Seabear, The National or Johnny Flynn (but I also listen to some popular bands too) and in people’s eyes they are too indie or not popular enough to genuinely like them. I hope I made my point. I’m not a native English speaker and I’m never sure if my posts are understandable.

Justyna, your post made perfect sense
It’s the few feux-hipsters that seem to ruin it for people who happen to like indie music.
I happened to mention I love Imagine Dragons to someone the other day, only to be chastised for listening to a band that ‘sold out’.
-_-
If there’s one thing in life we should be allowed to pick & choose and cherry pick the best bits of – it should be music.
On a lighter note, how do you drown a hipster?

Good one, Amelia I like Imagine Dragons too and they apparently sold out in the same way as I mentioned above – their song appeared in the TV show, in their case as the theme song for Partners. They were some hipsters’ favourites just a few months ago and once Partners premiered, they were pushed into the forbidden mainstream category and instantly deleted from every hipster’s iPod. I think there should be an app for that – iHipEraser that automatically deletes songs once they hit some number of fans.

I have a pretty diverse taste in music, and I admit I also some trashy party music sometimes, but one of my fav bands is Interpol, who in the early years had a really elitist fanclub, now not so much anymore, because they are not as hip as the used to. Full programm of hipster shaming went on, “I knew them when the just released their debut and played in blabla, NY.”, “Ugh did they really gave their song to that movie”. This was ruined when Brad Pitt said they were one of his fav bands at that time(2002)and with the second release MTV started playing their videos, OMG!
And other band bashing, Brandon Flowers(the Killers) said in an interview he didn´t like the Interpol´s singer`s voice and they went apeshit.
Those kind of fans not only give the other fans a bad image, but in a way it also reflects poorly on the band, because unless they state otherwise, you are not really sure if they not share the same elitist sentiment.

I’m old… 43. The Killers are one of the last new (as in post 1999) bands I bothered to like – one gets lazy after a certain age.

Brandon Flowers bugs the bejezus out of me. He was complaining about how rock radio only played Bowie and Robert Plant and didn’t give “new” bands a shot. This was when his “Are You Human or Are You Dancer” album came out. I’m sorry, I’m old but not THAT OLD. Rock may be dead but the stations I listen to don’t play Robert Plant.

He has his classic rock and rock confused and if there is no non-classic rock station in Vegas where he is from, sorry, people managed to make him rich anyway. My then 30 something ears managed to hear his music and actually PAID for it. I think I bought an Interpol CD the same year as the first Killers CD came out.

For the record I loved Robert Plant’s last album which was not rock nor played on any station I can find in LA but his 80s and 90s solo work makes me cringe.

All that said, I think TS was mad that her BF had no respect for her music and neither do I. The indie/discovered the band before it was big thing has been going on long before hipsters were born.

There is some music that is just too frothy and annoying, just like there are people (Johnny Depp, John Meyer) who are just hipper than thou poseurs and annoying.

I didn´t know Flowers said that, it´s complete bullshit in my opinion. Their debut was sold 7 million times, and “Human” was played all the time not only on rock radio stations, but also on mainstream radio, played endlessly on MTV, and was no.1 in a lot of countries.
I´m not familiar with Robert Plant, but I´m going to check him out.
Flowers said some pretty ridiculous stuff, he also demonized some bands and emo bands in general, saying they were dangerous and that parents should watch out for their children and threw several bands under the bus, he later backpedaled on some parts.
I like the Killers alright esp Hot Fuss, Sam´s Town and Sawdust, but it´s not deep, meaningful music, they are and always wanted to be stadium rock like U2.
I always love me some Interpol and Paul Banks(singer of Interpol) new solo record is pretty good, I´m listening to it a lot right now.

lol as much as i find her obnoxious, she does have a point about this new trend of people doing random things for the sake of being ironic and just random. anywho, doesn’t mean that it’s wrong or bad. everyone has different tastes/opinions. but come on i mean she KNOWS she’s basically giving away who the different boyfriends are. let’s not try and pretend that you’re subtle, swifty

The ironic thing kills me. “I’m going to wear a t-shirt from Goodwill that’s a $2.14 cents and then an American Apparel hoodie that’s $85.” What? What are you trying to prove? That rich can live side by side with the poor?

All the hipsters I’ve met are usually well to do. If that’s what you want to show then go volunteer at a soup kitchen and stop getting PBR tattoos. Irony only works when you’re not trying that hard.

As for Ms. Swift, well, what can I say? She’s got a great schtick. I was in the Dr’s office yesterday and the ladies at the desk were singing “Teardrops on My Guitar” all happy and ish. And they were about late 30s, early 40s. I think for some uh, not teens(?) it takes them back to HS and the “tragic” relationships then. Makes em feel young again. Maybe?

I don’t know, I’m pulling out of my keester, feel free to tell me I’m out of my mind

hahaha i couldn’t agree with you more about the AA and the goodwill gear. yes, it makes total sense to buy cheap tasting beer because fk the MAN and the corporate world, but also check out my brand new $2000 facebook machine, aka macbook pro.
sigh, to each his/her own i suppose.
oh god i would cringe if i saw older ladies singing her song like that. i think her music is catchy and all but all she does is sing about love love love. but then again, i suppose that’s most of the stuff you hear on the radio. no wonder some of our youth are so lost when it comes to important issues. who cares, if you don’t have a date to the prom, right?

ps-not saying ALL youth is like that, there are very smart and well-informed mature kids out there as well

Oh American Apparel, champions of Helvetica. I just graduated from art school (SAIC in Chicago) and I can’t tell you how many rich hipsters I saw there. But the thing was, me and my friends (ordinary working-class hipsters) thought of them as yuppies.

@someone
Nah, totally made sense I don’t think I came out of my bubble until 19–and my bubble was full of, “Oh god, the next episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and my boyfriend and I need to watch it!”

I can’t really, er, relate to her songs because I’ve only had 2 boyfriends (one in 9th year and the one in 10th that I’m now married to) so I’m thinking, “Gurrl you need to get over this and eat some ice cream or something,” every time one of her songs come on.

That is the most interesting part of the article for me! From the clip I saw it was a light-hearted joke. She was the opening act for a few of Brad Paisley’s concert back when she was promoting her first album. Overreacting?

Why would she laugh? She had just broken up with him a few weeks beforehand. She’s a real person as well as a celebrity. Apart from anything else, it would have been disrespectful to Conor. Why is Taylor’s love life up for laughs but self-professed family man Jason Aldean’s cheating scandal wasn’t mentioned.

Um i guess thats probably how hipsters come off but if you ever go to an indie festival or read an indie music publication many of the same bands come up over and over with a dash of the new kids. While there is always something new to be discovered; new bands, side projects, lost recordings, solo albums … but thats sort of the beauty of it all. New sounds turn you on to new things, to me its a good thing!

Yeah, I don’t see how her clothing is ‘hipster’. I don’t even get the label really; I listen to really obscure, alternative stuff and I listen to it because I like it, not because I fit into some stupid stereotype.

I understand you are entitled to not like her as a human or an artist but being so vile and hateful baffles me and scares me…

Because THIS is what we do to almost everyone, especially child stars. We build them up and then the backlash starts and we tear them down. Britney Spears is a prime example of this.

Additionally, it has been said by a many former child stars that being in the spotlight from an early age makes it difficult to have the normal childhood everyone else has and it can really mess them up. It’s almost as if they are developmentally delayed. Brooke Shields and Madonna both said that about Michael Jackson. He was perpetually childlike.

It’s just sad to me. It’s sad that there is so much negativity being thrown at a young woman because she likes to date and writes songs about her exes. It’s not like she’s doing drugs and chasing people down in cars like Lindsay Lohan or being famous for being dumb and having a s-x tape like Paris and Kim. Wanting to be in a relationship describes about all of my friends at the age of 22. It still describes most of my friends at the age of 26. I mean mercy, what does someone have to do and be like to satisfy you people?

Thing is, she’s horrible for the feminist movement, can’t sing or write decent songs, and is honestly not that smart or pretty. I agree with everything QQ said, after all, this is celebitchy, where people share their differing opinions on these pop tarts.

I hate pop music and don’t even know what Swift sings. (I’m over 40 – I listen to REAL music…Jazz, Classical and World Music) I am ROFLOL over her take on hipsters. I hope she takes on “Bohemiannes” next. It’s so contrived and they pretend (unsuccessfully) to be “authentic” and “natural”. It’s like Beiber posing with his pout, looking over his sunglasses. You pop stars are trying soooooooo hard to look “accidentally” stylish and hot – it makes me LAUGH! Nothing less attractive than trying too hard….it’s desperate, insecure and highly over done.

I’m also over 40 and I went through my cooler than thou phase in the late 80s/early 90s. I just called Johnny Depp a “poseur” in the latest post about him. I do this at every opportunity because that is how teen/20something me saw him at his peak.

I think its a phase many young people go through. I also think her John and Jake are a little old for that phase.

At this age, I am no longer as mainstream averse. I do like some of Katy Perry’s stuff for example. I heard her music via my BFFs 10 year old. I have heard one of TS’s songs via one of my more mainstream pop friendly friends. Even to my older, more mainstream friendly ears. It was not very good.

To be honest TS comes across as OLD to me. Older than I am. She seems so boring and so bland. I don’t know what either of those hipper-than-thou gentlemen were doing with her other than the obvious.

I know, that is what jumped out at me, too. And even when pressed she still would not go there. I’m guessing she was panicked at having to name a single indie band, but she kept her cool. Very clever dodge.

That’s unfair. She has very eclectic music taste. Look up a few of her recommended playlists. She did a huge one for USA Today when she was 18/19 and had loads of Lemonheads and Tegan and Sara. She also references a load of obscure 50/60s stuff. It’s just she’s not a music snob.

I am glad to see that most of the people here desagree with her. There are narrative videos, that tell an story, and there are “lyrical” videos, that use “random” imaginery. Her videos might not be random, but tell shitty stories. What her comments show is ignorance and intolerance, she is trying to be witty making fun of things she doesn’t undestand.

Agree kimchee, chris, and nicole; this vocally challenged minimally talented simpering twit has become a marketing joke and gimmick; Let’s see – walmart, walgreens, target, covergirl,etc. – is there anything her team won’t slap her face on – what’s next tissue paper and notebooks? – to squeeze more cash out of her tone deaf fans. Look, this is all about marketing a product, because the music’s a joke.
Remember, connor kennedy – didn’t think so, she got her pr out of him and it’s on to the next showmance.

She couldn’t be cool and “hip” so she went off the deep end and decided to be even uncooler and unhipper and ungroovier than she ever was by hooking up with a teen Kennedy because only people over 60 think Kennedys are cool, hip, happening, groovy or far out.

Seriously, isn’t hip a word from the 60s? When did that word become a thing again?

And yet, when she was dating him, most people on this site claimed that she wanted to marry him and become a Kennedy. It’s now clear of course that she’s just playing the field and didn’t take too long to move on.

Someone needs to teach her how to LET IT GO. The video doesn’t HAVE to be about the guy also, she could try actually using the opportunity to make art (not ART but just an interesting video for once).

It would be one thing if she just wrote songs about them, but she is obsessive about hating indie music and hipsters now, like she was obsessed with unicorns and butterflies on the last album. She was bearding for Jake and she can’t get over it, and she was a fling for John and she can’t get over it. Those two dudes she dated for less than a year combined and it’s been over a year since. Who holds onto something that long?

I’m sticking with “she’s obsessive and batsh*t cray and will actually lose her mind one day and kill some dude for trying to break up with her.”

Taylor’s very canny at being on top of pop culture trends like anti-hipsterism. But her attempt to do the ironic thing in her Never Ever Getting Back Together video was a self-indulgent fail. I get that it was supposed to be meta commentary but it just seemed like a copout for not coming up with a better concept.

Oh, and Taylor needs to grow a sense of humor about herself if she’s still bitter over the CMA Awards monologue. And she is still bitter if she feels the need to point out that she wasn’t laughing instead of just playing it off. If you’re gonna write a song called We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together then people are going to make fun of it. Deal.

She has been and remains a marginally skilled musician who is an industry creation more than anythng else. She can scarcely sing in tune for God’s sake. She wouldn’t have much of a career if she weren’t the blonde, All-American, cutesy girl next door.

Though I concede that there is a large degree of pretention and indiosynasy that passes itself off as art without any substance regarding bands that could be labeled as “indie”, don’t bash the ones who actualy are far superior artists than you are, Swifty.

She has the poetic aptitude of a twelve year old and probably can’t tell you what a half cadence actually is.

So, please.

It actually bothers me that musical hierarchyies have become so dismantled that people who are not trained have absolutely no clue what “good” music entails. (But that is a different debate in itself). Then they have the nerve to get their feelings hurt when you tell them that their music is shit and can give them a cogent argtument as to how and why. So those of us like lyrics that actually go beyond ABAB rhyming structure should feel bad, apparently.

Keep doing what you’re doing, Swifty. I’ll go back to my Grizzly Bear. Or perhaps I’m in the mood for Ravel.

I’ve always seen music as a subjective thing (trumpet and trombone player for the last 15 years) than a definitive one. Rap wasn’t called “music” forever and my brother thinks dubstep sounds like Transformers making whoopie. It’s all, I guess, perspective(?). It’s supposed to speak to somewhere to you and for 14 year olds, Taylor Swift is talking to them and *totes* knows their problems.

Now it’s easy to see when something is candy fake and stamped out for profit (read: Beiber, Swift, Toby Keith) or very “same-y” (read: Nickleback, KoRn, Disturbed…and I like Disturbed but gosh all their stuff starts to sound alike), or is just Pachebell’s Canon in D remixed for the 1,000th time but sometimes even a blind squirrel can find a nut. Not that I like any of Swift’s music but I’d be more inclined to say, “I don’t like her stuff/image” than say, “Her music sucks because chord progression/split minor/lack of key changes/unso weiter.”

Maybe it’s because I play more improv these days ah well. Just throwing some thoughts out there.

You could say the same thing about visual art, or writing/publishing, or acting, to name a couple examples. It seems like every art form has its hacks and wannabes who lack the talent or the background yet somehow manage to get noticed over the true artists.

What the hell is a hipster anyway? I may have saw one waiting in line to get into the Paris sewers. He was wearing pressed dockers, an ll bean quilted flannel that looked brand new, red vans, and had a beard. For some reason I wanted to slap him. Is that a hipster?

A hipster is someone who thinks he is cool and trendy even though he looks like his dad raided Robert Smith’s medicine cabinet in 1987 and Eddie Vedder’s closet in 1991 and saved the clothes, black dye and guyliner for him. The hipster also owns several flat irons.

In the 00s they were known as emo. In the 90s we (yes we) were known as grunge. In the 80s (late for me) we were known as Goths. I have no idea what they were called in the 70s or 60s – hippies?In the 50s they were known as James Dean. My mom LOVED him. LOL.

I have to ask – how can John Mayer be a hipster? Does no one else remember “Your Body is a Wonderland”? He was a total Jason Mraz/Five for Fighting made my ears bleed type of whiny, crappy pop singer. Then he did one bluesy CD I actually liked but it was not hip or cool. I heard the lead single on CSI! I had to be 38 when that came out.

It was also painful for me to buy because not only did I remember “Your Body is a Wonderland” but WHO IT WAS ABOUT! For the younger ladies – it was about our favorite desperate woman – J-LOVE.

John Mayer was a total something I would never have liked in my cooler than thou period. I hope he realizes that. I really hope that song is about Jake Gyllenhall.